A source told Sporting News that the Canadiens are the frontrunners to land future Hall of Famer Jaromir Jagr, having offered a one-year, $3 million contract to the 40-year-old winger who was third on the Philadelphia Flyers in scoring last season with 54 points.

Still, there is no debating that one of hockey’s greatest players moving to one of hockey’s greatest franchises would be intriguing, to say the least. In his one year with the Flyers, Jagr showed that he could still be a strong performer in the NHL after three seasons away in Russia with Avangard Omsk of the KHL.

Eight of Jagr’s 19 goals with the Flyers came on the power play, which would be a big boost to a Montreal team that was third from last in the NHL with a 14.3 percent conversion rate with in 2011-12.

Another benefit to Jagr potentially joining the Canadiens would be his veteran presence in the locker room. Players on the Flyers, young and old, raved about Jagr’s work ethic, and regularly spoke about how much they learned just from having him around. For a Montreal team whose oldest player is Jagr’s countryman, 34-year-old Czech defenseman Tomas Kaberle, adding a legend to a group of emerging forwards including Max Pacioretty and David Desharnais, with prospects coming through a rejuvenated pipeline, would be worth the gamble of Jagr’s health holding up.

One possible draw for Jagr in Montreal, aside from the city and the tradition of the Canadiens, is that he could play on a line with center Tomas Plekanec, who is from Jagr’s hometown of Kladno. Jagr played with another Kladno product in Philadelphia, Jakub Voracek, although the two were not linemates.

So Jagr would "love" to play for Montreal. That's great. Guy has no loyalty. Just give him a contract and he'll play a year, then move on. What he should have done with this comeback is pick a team and sign for a few years and try to build a winner even in his age. It would be hard for me to get close to a teammate like that.

When Jagr came to the Flyers he was assured there would be good portion of ice time and PP time. At the end of the year he got less ice time and then spoke of maybe not returning.

The Flyers have not made Jagr an offer yet If I understand it right - they want to try to sign Parise and Suter first which is understandable.

How close you get to a player likely is more down to how the player fits in with the team and acts individually than with if maybe he leaves after the season is done.

Jagr played 11 years with the Penguins, 2 or 3 with the Caps and 3 with the Rangers and then the Rangers did not want him back and then 4 seasons with Omsk in total, so this would be the first time since Pittsburgh Jagr choose to leave on his own admission.

I don't understand Jagr's reasons for this comeback. Is it the money? Is it to play for a few more years because he misses the game? Does he consider himself a pure gun for hire at this point? It seems he doesn't even care who he plays for. That's why I personally will never forgive him for choosing a bitter rival in Philly over a club that gave him a start to his career and taught him so much as a player. But that's me. It's obviously not how he thinks.

I think Jagr's top motivation at this point is to get as much playing time in the NHL as possible. I think he still views himself as one of the top hockey players in the world and he can only prove that to himself by playing top line minutes in the NHL. He also wants to play for a contender though which is why he didn't sign with a non-contender last year.

Sarcastic wrote:I don't understand Jagr's reasons for this comeback. Is it the money? Is it to play for a few more years because he misses the game? Does he consider himself a pure gun for hire at this point? It seems he doesn't even care who he plays for. That's why I personally will never forgive him for choosing a bitter rival in Philly over a club that gave him a start to his career and taught him so much as a player. But that's me. It's obviously not how he thinks.

Jagr wanted to comeback and prove he could stll play at a high level in the NHL - thats what he said. He also wanted the best possible chance of individual success on a team that could win the cup - therefore he choose the Flyers.

Jagr could have made twice as much in Russia last year and had higher NHL offers than the Flyers, so it was not only about the money, thats just the haters doing their best to create more Jagr hate.

Now Jagr wants the same as last year, but the Flyers have not made him an offer and wants to try sign other players first. So Jagr is listening to offers from other teams.

I do not see anything wrong with this - and no reason to hate Jagr for this either. But the Jagr haters will try to somehow change this motives to something that helps people dislike Jagr!